DARREN Huckerby fears his old pal Shaun Wright-Phillips is ready to ruin his return to Manchester City.

DARREN Huckerby fears his old pal Shaun Wright-Phillips is ready to ruin his return to Manchester City.

One of the stars during City's promotion-winning season in 2002, the jet-heeled Huckerby was sold to Norwich last season after 82 appearances for the Blues and has since become a crowd favourite at Carrow Road.

The 28-year-old will start on the left wing for the Canaries tomorrow night at the City of Manchester Stadium - and that will bring him into direct competition with Wright-Phillips.

When Huckerby was a City player, Wright-Phillips was only just emerging from the shadows of the Academy. But that did not stop the two men striking up a rapport that has continued even though the former Leeds man in now living in Norfolk.

"Shaun is a good friend of mine," said Huckerby, the man who scored City's first Premiership goal under Kevin Keegan.

"He used to live very close to me when I was at City and we got quite close. He is an excellent player.

"You could see it when I was there.

"He was just breaking into the team and I think his first full season was when we won the league. He always looked an exceptional talent and he's come on in leaps and bounds since then.

Respect

"He's probably one of their best players now and I can't praise him highly enough.

"He's an England star of the future, I've got not doubt about that. He's got great skill, great pace.

"And he's brave for such a small lad, one of the bravest players I've ever seen. He's going to go a long, long way in the game and I honestly think City will be lucky to hold on to him."

Norwich are still seeking their first Premiership win since returning to the top flight and Huckerby reckons they have a great chance of correcting that statistic in Manchester - providing they can keep Wright-Phillips quiet.

"I hope I get a good reception from the fans," he added. "I think they saw what I could do over the time when I was there. I was lucky enough to win the First Division title and scored a few goals in my time there.

"It will be nice to try to get one over them but it's nothing personal - we haven't won a game yet and we want those three points! It's a big game for us and we've got to start winning soon, we know that."

Huckerby cost the Blues é3.5m when he arrived from Leeds and went on to score 31 goals during his three-year stay, but was never really considered a regular and spent a spell on loan at Nottingham Forest before joining Norwich.

That is why he is desperate to get one over Kevin Keegan, the man who has sold him twice during his nomadic career. He insists, however, that there is no quarrel between the pair and is looking forward to seeing his old boss.